[pschlute]

Although I have little doubt my current version will read the K1 raw files and be able to do something with them it will be missing all the proper colour profiles, lens corrections and all that stuff.

I do use lens corrections to deal with barrel/pincushion distortion if needed, but never use the Pentax colour profiles.

I passionately hate having to be tied to clouds

If you use the LR Classic option you do'nt touch any cloud services at all.

[steephill]

It is possible to update old stand alone versions of Lightroom with additional lens and camera profiles. These are bundled with the free download of AdobeCamera Raw/DNG converter. Download and install then copy the relevant profiles to your custom profile location as detailed here Where are the lens profiles? - Adobe Support Community - 8990892
It works for my K1mk2 and lenses newer than the last version of Lightroom 6.14.

[jatrax]

I'm going to subscribe to the Lightroom Photography Plan and hope for the best. I passionately hate having to be tied to clouds and stuff like that but it seems there's no escape as evrything seems to be ending up in clouds and blockchains and stuff.

Lightroom Classic is (mostly) the same as your old version. Except you pay monthly or annually. It doesn't really use the cloud at all except to phone home every so often to check your account status. If you turn off the internet for a long time you might see a message asking about that but otherwise it is seamless. And updates are easy and frequent.

Moving from your 4.x version to 9.4 there will be a lot of changes that might not be noticeable. I strongly suggest you review what those changes are. I honestly could not even attempt a list since I have updated through every version. But there are many, many changes, some of them really useful.

[pschlute]

The most recent big change is a complete overhaul of Adobe Camera Raw

[jatrax]

There are so many changes from 4.x:
Adjustment brush
Radial filters
Luminosity masking
Color range masking
Camera profiles system is completely different
Highlights / Shadows? I think that was different in v5 and earlier
Dehaze slider
Texture slider
HDR merge
Panorama merge

You also get Photoshop for that monthly payment. Which might be huge or not depending on what your needs are.

[Rondec]

It is possible to update old stand alone versions of Lightroom with additional lens and camera profiles. These are bundled with the free download of AdobeCamera Raw/DNG converter. Download and install then copy the relevant profiles to your custom profile location as detailed here Where are the lens profiles? - Adobe Support Community - 8990892
It works for my K1mk2 and lenses newer than the last version of Lightroom 6.14.

This is what I have done. I have even gotten support for the most recent lens, the DFA *85 via this method.

[lister6520]

@pschlute, good to know that it is not tied to cloud services except for checking the subscription every so often. I can understand they need to do that otherwise one could just pay once and get lightroom for 14 Euro so I'm sort of OK with that.

@steephill, I should have waited a little longer and saved myself some cash as the lens profiles are probably the biggest reason I upgraded. Atthough now that I've done it maybe it wasn't such a bad idea even if it's going to cost quite a bit as I got the map problem fixed and I guess many improvements have been done over the years.

@jatrax, some of those definitely look useful, especially the HD merge if it is what I think it is. The incluision of Photoshop is indeed a pleasant surprise. I have been using an ancient PaintShop Pro, literally from the last century. It did most of what I needed but I think it deserves retirement after two decades of good service.

[jatrax]

The incluision of Photoshop is indeed a pleasant surprise.

I don't use Photoshop that much but the integration with Lightroom makes it really easy to send a file out to Photoshop and back. Essentially you work in Lightroom and just send stuff out to Photoshop for 'edits' and when done it comes back into Lightroom. Seamless. Just right click and select "edit in Photoshop".

[pschlute]

You also get Photoshop for that monthly payment

You also get Bridge, and your own website creator.

[GeeEmm]

For the record, you don't need to buy the subscription LR. I think this has been covered off above, but I am happily using LR6 stand-alone to process my K1ii dng files, just as I did my K3 dng files ... however in your case the purchase of LR6 would have required you to go down the 'pre-owned' route. I think your best bet would be to keep looking for a 'used' LR6 copy, and then pull the pin on the subscription. This presumes you can store your images locally, and that Adobe in their wisdom (ie avarice) haven't closed that off somehow. One thing I am lacking with LR6 (perhaps because I haven't devoted the energy to solving it) is the profiles for the new DFA lenses.

I found I had to upgrade my computer, which happily handled the K3 processing. I now have an AMD chip ((i5 equivalent), 500gb SSD, and 16gb memory, - works a treat!

ETA: Steephill, thanks for that word of advice, looks like my problem is solved.

[G and T]

It is possible to update old stand alone versions of Lightroom with additional lens and camera profiles. These are bundled with the free download of AdobeCamera Raw/DNG converter. Download and install then copy the relevant profiles to your custom profile location as detailed here Where are the lens profiles? - Adobe Support Community - 8990892It works for my K1mk2 and lenses newer than the last version of Lightroom 6.14.

This is also what I have done. It works seamlessly with my K1 mkII and my DFA lenses.

Glenn

[maw]

I remember that when I bought the Canon 6d in the offer was included a double DVD one with Lightroom 5.x and the other with Adobe Photoshop Elements 12.
In my opinion but also from what I read there are several options.

1. Updating or subscribing to a plan with Adobe

2. Affinity buys it and gets free updates until version 2 is released.

3. ON1, Luminar and other very powerful Artificial Intelligence software are born every day.

4. Aim for freeware programs.

5. The last option would be to set DNG camera instead of PEF or download Adobe dng converter and then use any program for retouching, not for workflow management like Lightroom.

Maybe in the next year there will be some price adjustments or promotions in Adobe programs as well.

Ciao Mario

[Wheatfield]

I have just ordered a K-1 II and hope to receive it in a week or so.

It occurred to me that I probably need to update my Lightroom to support it but I just can't figure out how to do it. Last time I did it was when I got the K-3 and that was quite easy, I think just went to HELP->check for updates and I don't remember having any issues.

Recently I also noticed the map function stopped working and that told me I need to update. The problem is that if I check for updates it tells me that everything is up to date but still the map function is telling me I need to update.

I've spent the past couple of hours wading through the Adobe website trying to find a way to do the update but I cannot figure it out. It says that the version I have (4.4) is not supported anymore and yet seems to offer no way to update it to a later supported version, or maybe it is and I'm just too dumb to understand.

I seemed to understand I have to install something called Creative Cloud Desktop that is now needed to manage updates. I did install it but when I look for Lightroom in it I find a tile for Lightroom and one for Lightroom Classic. I'm not sure which mine is but in any case both of these will only allow me to 'try' or 'buy' - there seems to be no option to upgrade. It also tells me all my Adobe software is up to date.

I don't need any new features, though they would always be welcome. All I need it to get it to support the K-1 ii and to get the map function working again.

Can some one put me on the right track as I am well and truly lost ?

If you can bring yourself to use the DNG format, you don't need to update your version of Lightroom, which as you've been told, cannot be done anyway. Your version of Lightroom will read the DNG file from your K1II just fine.